Zionist Studies 



% 



By 
ALBERT M. FRIEDENBERG 




NEW YORK 

Bloch Publishing Company 
1904 



Zionist Studies 



ALBERT M~ VrIEDENBERG 




NEW YORK 

Bloch Publishing Company 

I 9°4 



ONGRESS 

Weceived 



u 



JAN J I 1904 

A Copyright Entry — 
CLASS _ '« XXb. NrT 



^5 ^ 



Copyrighted 1903, by 
ALBERT M. FRIEDENBERG 



• • • • * * • • • • • * * 1 



Co 
F. F. and L. F. 



TDANOPEA [Ireland], the soft mother of a slothful and pusilla- 
nimous people, is a neighbor island, anciently subjected by the 
arms of Oceana [England], since almost depopulated for shaking the 
yoke and at length replanted with a new race. Wherefore seeing it is 
neither likely to yield men fit for arms, nor necessary it should, it had 
been the interest of Oceana so to have disposed of this province, being 
both rich in the nature of the soil and full of commodious ports for 
trade, that it might have been ordered for the best in relation to her 
purse, which, in my opinion, if it had been thought upon in time, 
might have been best done by planting it with fews, allowing them 
their own rites and laws ; for that would have brought them suddenly 
from all parts of the world and in sufficient numbers. And though 
the fews be now altogether for merchandise, yet in the land of Canaan 
{except since their exile from whence they have not been landlords) 
they were altogether for agriculture, and there is no cause why a man 
should doubt, but having a fruitful country and excellent ports, too, 
they would be good at both. . . . Wherefore Panopea being farmed 
out to the fews and their heirs forever for the pay of a provincial 
army to protect them during the term of seven years, and for two 
millions [pounds sterling] annual revenue from that time forward, 
besides the customs which would pay the provincial army, would have 
been a bargain of such advantage, both to them and this commonwealth, 
as is not to be found otherwise by either. To receive the fews after 
any other manner into a commonwealth were to maim it, for they of 
all nations never incorporate, but, taking up the room of a limb, are of 
no use or office to the body, while they suck the nourishment which 
would sustain a natural and useful member. 

James Harrington's Oceana (/6j6). 

In Henry Morley's ed., London, 1887, pp. 13, 14, 
Jewish Comment, September 4, 1903. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Preface 7 

Dubnow's " Jewish History" (The Jewish 
World, New York; 9 

The Economic Basis of Zionism (The Macca- 
bsean) 13 

The Modern Jewish Question (Jewish Com- 
ment) 19 

Jewish University Students in Germany and 
the German-Speaking Countries of 
Europe 23 



PREFACE. 

The following papers, as a totality, are studies in 
Zionist theory. They are reprint?d in substantially 
their original form, with the correction of verbal 
errors of course, simply because a living movement 
cannot be reduced to a set of hard and fast rules 
which revision would entail. These papers, moreover, 
were produced at various seasons, are united in their 
purpose and invariably represent the result of care- 
ful study and serious reflection. 

It is believed that the studies herewith presented 
to a critical public bear one and the same message : 
Zionism is primarily a movement which makes for 
the amelioration of the conditions under which Jews 
live in countries of persecution. In reality this is the 
theory of Zionism, if there can be theory in any 
movement that has a practical object. 

As I wrote on another occasion : 

"The Zionist movement deserves success : it is the 
expression of all that is noblest in Judaism. It 
seeks to make an agriculturist of the Jewish small- 
trader and money-broker, and to solve the question 
of the proletariat. It has for its object the return 
of the Jew to his ancient fatherland and calling, 
greatly changed by centuries of Turkish misrule and 
the fulminations of Christian monarchs against 
Jews and Jewish industries. Re-established in Pales- 
tine, the Jews will have no excuse for not tilling the 
soil — there will be no repressive legislation against 
them in their own land. With Zionism an accom- 
plished fact, the Jew must needs be a farmer, for 
Palestine is essentially an agricultural country. The 
opportunities for commercial activity are small; a 
steady application will restore its fertility to the 



8 PREFACE 

soil, thus enabling profitable farming operations to 
be carried on." * 

Recent developments point to a speedy realization 
of these hopes, be they East African or Palestinian, 
and what has been thought of, perhaps for only the 
last twenty years, will become more than a centuries- 
old, pious dream. The first reference to anything ap- 
proaching modern, practical Zionism by a Christian, 
was made in 1884 by Eduard von Hartmann "the 
philosopher of the unconscious," who wrote in an 
anti-Semitic pamphlet, "Das Judenthum in Gegen- 
wart und Zukunft" : 

" . . . . if the Jews were ever to succeed in establish- 
ing a State, such would have to be in accordance with 
modern ideas in government, culture, and science."! 

The paper in review of Mr. Dubnow's work repre- 
sents my view of the theory of Jewish history and 
is of interest in relation to Zionism. 

The pleasant duty of acknowledging my obliga- 
tions remains. To Mr. Ernst Wolf of New York I am 
indebted for several useful hints in the paper on the 
Jewish students in Germany. This article was de- 
livered at a conference of the Jewish Chautauqua 
Summer Assembly in Atlantic City, N. J., July 19, 
1903, and this fact must be held to account for the 
lecture-form which still adheres to it. All the papers, 
with the exception of the last, which is new, first 
appeared in either the "Jewish Comment," "The 
Maccabasan" or "The Jewish World" (New York), 
and my thanks are due to the editors of these re- 
spective periodicals for their gracious, readily-ac- 
corded permission to reprint. 

Albert M. Friedenberg. 
New York City, 

Thanksgiving Day, 1903. 

* Albert M. Friedenberg, "A Zionistic Problem" in Jewish 
Messenger, Oct. 4, 1901. tin Idem. . r -,^,. : ; 



DUBNOWS « JEWISH HISTORY/'* 

The sub-title of this admirable translation of a 
most interesting work is a misnomer. Mr. Dubnow 
has not written an essay in the philosoplry of his- 
tory and not a short philosophy of Jewish history, 
but rather a sketch of Jewish history, strikingly 
succinct, highly objective, with some interesting 
generalizations. 

While Mr. Dubnow's analysis is objective, his con- 
clusions are highly subjective. These conclusions are 
the result of a study of Jewish history, starting from 
Mr. Dubnow's viewpoint. Moreover, these conclusions 
are such as any one viewing the continuity of Jewish 
history, as Mr. Dubnow views it, would arrive at. 
Mr. Dubnow' s prime concern with Jewish history is 
as a manifestation of the spiritual element in man. 

This statement of the matter, while extremely 
fascinating, is not in accordance with the demands 
of the philosophic spirit. For the problem that the 
philosophy of history has to deal with is a teleo- 
logical. It must seek to discover the first causes of 
things, not merely by inductive inference, but by a 
system of indisputable checks and proofs, by the 
most rigorous application of the a posteriori method. 
These first causes found, generalizations and illus- 
trations designed to amplify, to bring out what the 
pure concepts imply, must follow. 

Mr. Dubnow does not approach his subject in this 
way. His book represents the relation of the Jews 
toward universal history and the interdependence of 
Jewish and general history. On the basis of a phi- 

* "Jewish History. An Essay in the Philosophy of History." 
By S. M. Dubnow. Translated from the German version of the 
Russian by Miss Henrietta Szold. Philadelphia: The Jewish 
Publication Society of America, 1903. 



io ZIONIST STUDIES 

losophy of history, the basis of Jewish history at 
various periods must be found. For example, in the 
days of the prophets an ideal communism was the 
expression of the dominant ideas in Jewish history, 
that being the result of the internecine strife waged 
between the rich and powerful on the one hand and 
the " landless and homeless" on the other. 

Throughout Jewish history it will be found that 
the controlling force was the nationalizing tendency, 
the efforts making for the Jewish nation. This view 
partakes somewhat of an economic interpretation of 
facts, and in so far it is directly opposed to Mr. 
Dubnow's. For Mr. Dubnow believes that the tonic 
note in the chords of Jewish history is the spiritual, 
and to that end he insists "we are welded together 
by our glorious past." Again and again (p. 9, note 
on p. 31 and elsewhere) does he reiterate what he 
assumes as his chief premise. 

Here and there Mr. Dubnow lays proper emphasis 
on the national consciousness of the Jews through- 
out their history (e. g., when he speaks of the rela- 
tion between Jews and Egyptians). And he refers 
continually to their historical consciousness, though 
this is a conclusion which many of us cannot draw 
and goes to a greater length than many of us are 
willing to go. 

Enough has been said now, I take it, to show 
how far Mr. Dubnow's standpoint differs from the 
truly philosophic-historical. Not that it is to be im- 
plied that Mr. Dubnow is in error; it may be said 
that Mr. Dubnow's view is subjective and follows 
along the lines of deductive analysis. 

And here my disagreement ends. The construc- 
tive, the analytic side of the work is excellent. Mr. 
Dubnow divides Jewish history into two grand di- 
visions — the chief and the composite formation. The 
former is subdivided as follows : 1. The primary 



ZIONIST STUDIES n 

period (Bible) ; 2, the secondary or spiritual-polit- 
ical period (Second Temple); 3, the tertiar}' or 
national-religious period (Talmud). In the latter 
the subdivisions are : 1. The Gaonic period, during 
which the Oriental Jews held the headship of their 
co-religionists; 2, the Rabbinic-philosophical period, 
when the Spanish Jews had the chief sway; 3, the 
Rabbinic-mystical period, the time when the German 
and Polish Jews led their brethren throughout the 
world; 4, the modern period of enlightenment, the 
nineteenth century. 

Mr. Dubnow seems to us in his happiest vein when 
he describes the Talmudic period. His sketch of the 
reaction, of the conditions which obtained when the 
last vestige of Jewish nationality had been swept 
away completely, is a splendid performance. In few, 
well-chosen words he describes the work of as many 
centuries. He shows how the Jews earned their title 
"the people of the Book." In the schools of Sura 
and Pumbeditha, in Palestine and Babylon, learning 
was held for its own sake in the highest esteem. 
The Bible was carefully studied and commented upon 
in many learned works. And super-commentaries 
were written at an early date for the primar\^ her- 
meneutic literature had grown to so large a mass 
that a pathfinder through this great labyrinth was 
a pressing necessity. 

Of x\merica Mr. Dubnow says nothing. His de- 
scription of modern conditions in Russia is sane and 
clear, quite what one would be warranted in except- 
ing from the author of " Yevreiskaya Istoriya." 

And I cannot refrain from quoting in full Mr. 
Dubnow's concluding words (p. 181 et seq.) : 

" .... Union with mankind at large, on the basis 
of the spiritual and the intellectual, the goal set up 
by the Jewish Prophets in their sublime vision of the 
future (Isaiah ch. ii., and Micah, ch. iv.), is the 



12 ZIONIST STUDIES 

ultimate ideal of Judaism's noblest votaries. Will 
their radiant hope ever attain to realization? 

"If ever it should be realized — and it is incumbent 
upon us to believe that it will — not a slight part of 
the merits involved will be due to Jewish history. 
.... It will speak to the heart and the conscience 
of men, not merely to their curious mind. It will 
secure respect for the silvery hair of the Jewish 
people, a people of thinkers and sufferers. It will 
dispense consolation to the afflicted and by its ex- 
amples of spiritual steadfastness and self-denial en- 
courage martyrs in their devotion In this 

sense, Jewish history in its entirety is the pledge of 
the spiritual union between the Jews and the rest of 
the nations." 

We have here a consummation devoutly to be 
wished, which is more of a hope, however, than a 
philosophy of Jewish history. But this striking 
peroration, for such it is in very truth, will sink 
deeply into the hearts of all readers and by this 
means our historic past may become something 
tangible, a reality. 

The Jewish Publication Society of America de- 
serves the hearty thanks of every earnest student of 
Jewish history for having rendered this delightful 
essay easily accessible to English readers. But our 
work should not end here. Mr. Dubnow's book is 
but the weapon to goad on those able to elaborate, 
in the spirit of our author, the many points on 
which he has but barely touched. It is a valuable 
preliminary study. More than this, it is scientific 
and accurate and should be put into the hands of 
our Sunday school pupils of a maturer cast of mind 
for the purpose of putting them au courant in a 
broad, objective way with the race of which they are 
the youngest representatives, with that race which, 
as the Earl of Beaconsfield remarked, in old age to a 
Jewish lad, can do anything but fail ! 



THE ECONOMIC BASIS OF ZIONISM. 

Zionism, viewed from the standpoint of a strict 
materialist, seeks to solve the Jewish problem. 
Moreover, it is the only solution of this problem. 

That we have a Jewish problem he who will read 
the news of the world for a day must admit. Eng- 
land is trying to exclude the Jew, because forsooth 
he lowers the English standard of life and decency. 
America is working toward the same end; its reasons 
for excluding Jews must of necessity be slightly 
different. Riots, blood-accusations, boycotts — any 
pretense to rid the face of the earth of the Jew — our 
cup runneth over verily ! 

Zionism in the primary and the final analysis 
bears an economic imprint. Just as sentimentalism 
is leavened with realism, so economics is fused with 
ideal theories ; standards of life combine with life as 
it is lived. If Zionism is at all worthy of our ad- 
herence it is because it is the modus vivendi to the 
Jew. With Zionism as an ideal, the Jewish life in the 
exile is enhaloed b3^ golden visions and the real man 
with the hoe of modern industrialism lifts up his 
head and feels himself a worthier part of the social 
fabric. It is an elementary principle in economic 
theory that the higher the mode of life, the higher 
are the earning power and the wages received. 

With Zionism an assured fact, strenuous efforts 
indeed would the Jew make to improve his economic 
position, to add to the sum-total of his nation's 
capital, for he would live better, free from care. 

Our thesis outlined after this fashion, let us re- 
trace our steps and examine the first premise : 
Zionism, the solution of the Jewish problem. We 
must accept without reserve the present seriousness 



14 ZIONIST STUDIES 

of this problem, for, while the problem, like the 
poor, has always been with us, it has never assumed 
so terrifying an aspect, so gigantic an aspect, as at 
this day. Zionism, then, is to be viewed as the solu- 
tion of this problem, because it stands for the last 
resort and because it is that solution which will 
maintain our economic, and therefore our religious 
and social integrity and supremacy unharmed. 
Zionism, moreover, looks at the Jewish problem 
much as the anti-Semites do, but from a distinctly 
Jewish viewpoint, and for that reason alone must 
meet, and has met, with anti-Semitic approbation. 
The anti-Semites declare that the Jews must be 
rendered impotent as an influence in the economic 
life, say of France or Germany : the Jews say that 
France and Germany are not congenial places of 
refuge for themselves in the exile, and that life will 
be realized economically to the full only in a publicly 
legally assured home of their own. 

There remain to be considered two other solutions 
of the Jewish problem, which, to continue looking at 
the matter through the spectacles of a materialist, 
are inconsequent, unsatisfactory and beside the mark. 
The assimilation theory is almost exploded by this 
time in the light of experience. Its answer to the 
question is that of the Zionist theory, but with 
what a difference? To conceal the amounts of Jew- 
ish capital beneath the surface of cosmopolitan, or 
of chauvinistic, society, as if French history in our 
own day does not reveal the futility of this pro- 
cedure? This assimilation theory presupposes that 
the corpus of Jewish capital will continue as it has 
been continuing, disregardful of attack, conserved to 
bolster up the Jewish position, but unfortunately 
such a Jewish position as would put the right- 
minded, high-thinking Jew to shame. Zionism shares 
this view, but it proposes to present Jewish capital 



ZIONIST STUDIES 15 

in a light that will redound to the eternal credit of 
the Jewish name and to utilize the forces of Jewish 
capital as want-satisfiers, as producers for the Jew- 
ish people. 

As for the conversionist theory, it is insincere and 
not above reproach. The proper office of Jewish 
capital is to bring out the supply to answer the de- 
mand of the Jews. This theory would force Jewish 
capital into Christian channels without diverting 
enough of the baptismal water of Christianity to 
neutralize successfully that in the Jewish character 
at which Christians have always taken umbrage, to 
smooth over with a fair measure of real results the 
points of difference between the Jew and the Chris- 
tian. The lives of all the converted Jews since the 
dawn of Christianity, are proof positive of the cor- 
rectness of these assertions. Take, for example, the 
German poet Heine. To the Jews he was a Chris- 
tian, to the Christians a Jew. 

Can we call Zionism the policy of surrender? Are 
we justified in demanding an heroic fortitude of a 
mere handful of Jews against overwhelming numbers 
of Christians, when the pages of history can only 
evidence Thermopylse as a similar example of stead- 
fast devotion? I divest myself utterly of the fabric 
of romance, of the trappings of sentiment, when I 
quote the satirical couplet which has ever been 
recited in those cases where discretion triumphed 
over valor : 

"He who fights and runs away, 
Lives to fight another day." 

Opponents of Zionism* admit that, with the 
Jewish problem, there is bound up another problem, 
the "real problem of the twentieth century [which] 

* "A Quarterly Reviewer," Aspects of the Jewish Question, 
New York, 1902. 



16 ZIONIST STUDIES 

is the backwardness of the nations, not the forward- 
ness of the Jews."* Of course, the limitations of my 
subject prevent my emphasizing all that is noble, 
dignified and sublime in that movement which is 
blindly called a ''policy of surrender" \in some quar- 
ters. 

After all, it must needs be Isaiah or one with a 
strong soul, suffused with Isaiah's ideals, who can 
teach men their lessons. Isaiah inveighed against 
capital in his writings. He sided with the " landless 
and homeless" because he recognized the futility of 
building an imposing superstructure of idealism on a 
foundation of sand, on economic realities which could 
not bear the burden thrust upon them. 

Dr. Theodor Herzl advanced no mistaken theories, 
argued no erroneous notions in his " Judenstaat." 
11 Altneuland," that romance founded on economic 
facts, on real conditions of the Jews to-day, shows 
that sound economic principles have been considered 
in an effort to realize seriously the Jewish state. At 
present this nationality exists only on paper, but in 
a manner that differs radically from all other pro- 
jects of earlier times, whether these were influenced 
by Utopianism, Platonism, Fourierism, Owenism, 
Transcendentalism or not. It is true that discussion 
of economic, practical topics in advance of their 
realization inevitably fritters away into theory, but 
it is hardly too much to say that such a treatment 
as this results in familiarizing the masses of the 
population of the new state with problems of gov- 
ernment, of every-day life which can then be solved 
when the crux is hit. 

Indeed, the student of the history of the later 
Israelites, of the period of the kingdoms of Judah 
and Israel, is entirely at home in economic discus- 
sion. Problems of wealth, of the relations of labor 

* Aspects of the Jewish Question, p. viii. 



ZIONIST STUDIES 17 

and capital, are met there at every turn. The 
twenty-fifth chapter of Leviticus, the Jubilee legisla- 
tion may be used by the followers of Dr. Herzl with 
this important advantage : history affords a striking 
commentary on these Biblical words and the mis- 
takes of ancestors need not be repeated by their 
descendants. 

To affect to despise the partisans of Zionism, to 
look upon the Zionist movement as a delusion and 
vain attempt, is to shut one's eyes deliberately to 
the facts of contemporary history and firmly to 
avow one's belief in the providential character of the 
progress of the world, of the march of humanity. 
The Jew is the Azazel of modern times, and simply 
because he is a thinking person he strives to deflect 
the impending cataclysm from himself by removing 
himself from its course. The scape-goat of ancient 
days was set out in the wilderness and left to drift 
for himself, the thinking being of our own times 
wishes to remove from the jealous neighbor to a 
locality where he can work out his own destiny ac- 
cording to his own lights. 

Let me follow out this thought to its logical con- 
clusion. Jews are growing weary of the reproach : 
You are Luftmenschen, men without a country ! 
From the viewpoint of the economist, it is deleteri- 
ous on the people among whom the Jews reside for 
the former to cast their own omissions and com- 
missions on the latter. Economic effects must issue 
from economic causes within the same limits : there 
can no more be an economic effect of a springing or 
shifting character, less even an adventitious growth, 
than houses can be built of the very material that 
is used in the construction of other edifices. The 
Jews, then, seek to escape the storm by means of 
their economic independence, by reason of the fact 
that, so far as the productive, distributive and con- 



18 ZIONIST STUDIES 

sumptive forces go, they are sufficient unto them- 
selves. 

So, on these foundations, Zionists have chosen to 
build. Quite logically they have invested their pro- 
ject with the halo of romance, they have placed the 
cornice of idealism on the fundament of realism. 
Without the "return to Palestine" idea, without the 
Kultur programme, the scheme would succeed with 
thinking beings. In its naked baldness, it would 
stand forth an economic principle incarnate, a 
worldly means to an end which all men would have 
to admire on the side of soundness, stability and 
method. The veneer of historic tradition causes 
Zionism to appeal to such as would otherwise be 
blind in the face of proffered advantages, while, on 
the other hand, it raises up for itself opponents who 
can only see their own hands within the limits of a 
hand's length of their bodies. 

Here is the meeting-place of Jews of all shades of 
opinion. Differences ought to be forgotten in the 
spirit in which differences cannot exist, where all are 
of the same mind. The Jew, who has diligently 
prayed leschana haba VYeruschalayim on all the 
Pessachim he has lived, can sit at the side of the 
Jew who has never known aught of the Jewish 
Zeitgeist save its economic realities, while both turn 
their faces toward that great Light in the East 
which sends forth rays of peace, of courage, of 
mutual understanding and of good will. Introspec- 
tion resulting in peace within the individual leads to 
a peaceful attitude toward the world at large. The 
Jewish problem solved for the Jew himself with the 
re-establishment of the Jewish state, the Jewish 
problem — rather the capitalist problem, so far as the 
nations of Christendom are concerned — will pass on 
to a natural death, leaving the weary wandering Jew 
of all the centuries at rest ultimately and eternally. 



THE MODERN JEWISH QUESTION-* 

This modest little pamphlet of forty-eight pages 
calls for extended comment, since it examines the 
Zionist movement and the Jewish question from the 
economic side, from a novel point of view. The 
paper is an example of the theory of interpreting 
history by economic factors (historischer Material- 
ismus), and applies the fundamental concepts of this 
theory to the problems and conditions that affect 
the Jewry of the present day. 

The present essay discloses one serious fault at the 
outset : it follows the line of method and reasoning 
of two works of Oncken ("History of Political 
Economy") and Werner Sombart ("Modern Cap- 
ital"), and does not take a sufficiently broad view 
of the voluminous literature of its subject. Again, 
Herr Pinkus frowns upon Karl Marx's solution of 
the Jewish question (in Deutsch-franzosische Jahr- 
bticher for 1844) which is truly remarkable in its 
philosophic incisiveness. Marx's words are: "The 
economic and social emancipation of the Jews is 
tantamount to the emancipation of the social fabric 
from Judaism" {Die gesellschaftliche Emancipation 
des Juden ist die Emancipation der Gesellschaft vom 
Judenthum), and they can be made to imply with 
ease that for which Zionism is striving. Marx's 
words must not be taken to mean the Jew in so- 
ciety — Herr Pinkus has made this egregious blunder 
— but the Jew as a part of the social organization. 

After a few words by way of introduction, Herr 
Pinkus makes the significant statement that Zionism 

* "Die Moderne Judenfrage von den Grundlagen der juedischen 
Wirtschaftsgeschichte und des Zionismus." By Lazar Felix Pin- 
kus. Breslau: Wilhelm Koebner. 1903. 



20 ZIONIST STUDIES 

can only be treated and explained as a social phe- 
nomenon which is the result of economic causes. 
Following Sombart, Herr Pinkus then makes a few 
superficial remarks on Jewish history, and attempts 
to draw a philosophy from it. But is this reason- 
ing cogent? Is Zionism, in the modern sense of 
the term, grounded in the course of Jewish his- 
tory for thousands of years ? To us it seems that 
Zionism was born of anti-Semitism, and as both 
are products of modern conditions, so both can 
be understood only by a careful examination of the 
events of the last fifty, really of the last twenty, 
years. The Jewish problem is as old as the exile, 
but Zionism is something that was not seriously 
thought of before 1890, save, perhaps, by one or 
two pious Jews. 

Herr Pinkus has hence made his telescope consist 
of too many component divisions. The Jewish 
problem has been looked at from a point of view 
that is afar off, and Zionism has been placed as the 
last link in a long chain, when, in reality, it is 
indissolubly welded with modern anti-Semitism. 
Kischeneff but confirms what is here set down and 
exemplifies the chameleon-like character of the beast 
of Jewish oersecution. And because Herr Pinkus uses 
a long telescope—so long that his hands alone are 
unable to support it, and thus forces him to requisi- 
tion those next him— Sombart, Oncken and other 
books that really have nothing to do with the Jew- 
ish problem, as props — he contends that we can see 
the Jewish problem only by way of parallax, when, in 
reality, the Jewish problem has no parallax, and is 
the same Jewish problem from one point of view as 
it is from another. 

Herr Pinkus draws some interesting conclusions 
from Jewish life and history in medi£eval times, and 
these are in the main correct. For example, it is 



ZIONIST STUDIES 21 

quite proper to say that the mediaeval Jews were 
saved from destruction by their economic advantages 
and commercial prosperity, but the statement is not 
novel and original with Herr Pinkus. Roscher first 
pointed out what commerce meant to the mediaeval 
Jew ("On the Position of the Jews in the Middle 
Ages, Considered from the Standpoint of a Universal 
Commercial Polity"). Of course, as has been noted, 
these remarks of Herr Pinkus have nothing to do 
with his main thesis. 

When Herr Pinkus comes to apply his theory we 
find that he has made a tolerably careful study of 
conditions. But instead of deriving Zionism 
straightway from these facts, he imports idealistic 
considerations into the question. These elements 
have no bearing on the matter, for the Zionist 
movement, as Herr Pinkus himself acknowledges 
(his words are given above), is the result of the 
causation of economic forces. With Zionism an ac- 
complished fact, ideal elements may come to play 
quite a part in the Jewish state, to enhalo things 
prosaic in romance, but at present we have merely 
to do with the logic of the situation. 

Finally, what are Herr Pinkus' conclusions? He 
says Zionism, as a matter of theory, includes at 
present : 1. The question of classes (the Jewish 
proletariat) ; 2, the question of groups (women, 
etc.); 3, the question of the general physical stand- 
ards of life; 4, the question of intellectual culture; 
5, the question of organization — all of which com- 
bined produce the social question. Of these conclu- 
sions the second is frivolous; the others are correct. 
His definition of Zionism, the form which the social 
problem has assumed, so far as the Jewish race is 
concerned, is good. 

The points suggested in the present discussion are 
minor points of difference, points of disagreement 



22 ZIONIST STUDIES 

with Herr Pinkus' conclusions or with the workings 
out of his thesis. It is but fair to add, however, 
that the subject is polemic; that on its various 
phases men must and will differ until the crack of 
doom, and that while one advances this argument 
and another that, all are in substantial agreement 
so far as the existence of the Jewish problem goes. 
Every one of us is a philosopher if he draws things 
away from their matrix and seeks to understand the 
nature and the incidence of their relation to that 
matrix. So it can be said for Herr Pinkus that his 
presentation is strikingly individualistic and a sane 
and serious effort. Had he concentrated his energies, 
however, on the ultimate phase of the problem his 
writing might have had more value. As it stands, 
we wander through a labyrinth with the Ariadne-like 
assistance of Oncken and Sombart and the others, 
to come at last in contact only with some conclu- 
sions that are paraphrases of what has been applied 
to other conditions. Tennyson's simple lines have 
been applied to many things — 

"Flower in the crannied wall, 
I pluck you out of the crannies, 
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand, 
Little flower — but if I could understand 
What you are, root and all, and all in all, 
I should know what God and man is." 

— but to none more truly than to the Jewish prob- 
lem as far as it relates to the world of men and 
their God. 

ii.rf.ci. 



JEWISH UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN GERMANY 

AND THE GERMAN-SPEAKING 

COUNTRIES OF EUROPE.* 

In our own land university students have made a 
class of themselves, in England their distinct class 
exists rather in name than in fact, while in Germany 
and Austria, indeed in all Continental countries, the 
students at the universities form a distinct group of 
the population. 

The elaborate ceremonies of initiation of the 
Crown Prince Frederick William of Prussia into the 
" alte hochst eh wiirdige Burschenschaft Borussia" 
into which by the way no Jews are admitted, at 
Bonn University quite recently, are an evidence of 
the German pride and admiration of universities, 
their students and life. That the German Jews were 
and are anxious to share in this spirit — altogether 
indigenous — during their period of preparation for 
the "battle of life," is no matter of surprise. 

If the Jewish students are university students in 
the same sense as the Gentiles, so far as the attend- 
ance on lectures and examinations goes, they are 
not participants in the student life of their Christian 
fellows. Their pleasures are taken seriously, no mad 
pranks occur, but Jewish student life is as sectarian 

* I speak of the various students collectively under the generic 
term German. 

A word on the general literature of the entire subject. 

a. " Der deutsche Student," by Dr. Leopold Bahlsen, of Teachers 
College, Columbia University, in Sonntagsblatt der N. Y. Staats- 
Zeitung; February S, 1903. 

b. "Die deutschen Universitaeten und das Universitaetsstu- 
dium" by Professor Friedrich Paulsen, of Berlin University, Ber- 
lin, 1902. This work is cited in the present paper as Paulsen. 
A review of the volume by Albert M. Friedenberg appeared in 
Jewish Comment, August 1, 1902. 



24 ZIONIST STUDIES 

from its own side as Christian student life is, so far 
at least as Christians are concerned. 

Were not the Jewish students in Germany always 
discriminated against? In January, 1821, Heinrich 
Heine was punished by means of the u consilium 
aheundV from Goettingen, he being a student there 
at the time and member of a corps. At the present 
day, largely as the result of the active anti-Semitic 
propaganda^ carried on since 1875, Jewish university 
students as a class are decidedly unpopular among 
their Christian class-mates. The Jews are disliked 
because: 1, they are Jews; 2, they are too much 
given to study for the sake of the honors involved. 
The latter aspect has even now arisen in America. 
At Harvard, par excellence, the same tendency has 
been found to exist, with some show of reason it must 
be admitted. The Jewish student, therefore, passes 
from under the shadows of the great traditions, 
represented by the universities both here and abroad, 
without having felt or in any way feeling the effects 
which they produce in the majority of instances. 

But to return from this digression. The Jewish 
university students in Germany never learn to know 
thoroughly the real German student spirit, not be- 
cause they would not, but simply because they can- 
not. No German student will admit them to his 
corps. The Jewish students, however, have created 
a Jewish student life and spirit of their own. 

Let me quote here the philosophical reasons why 
the Jews are unwelcome visitors at the majority of 
German universities. Professor Paulsen* says : 

"The causes of the preponderance of the Jewish 
population in university study are not difficult of 
ascertainment; the Jewish population is practically 
an urban and prosperous above the average. More- 
over, the Jews evince a marked desire to improve 

* Paulsen, pp. 199, 200. 



ZIONIST STUDIES 25 

their social position and for this, university study is 
the best, at least the only available means. An 
army career is completely closed to Jews. Further, 
one cannot deny to the Jewish population phenomenal 
tenacity of purpose to which they unite the ability 
to put up with innumerable privations for the sake 
of ultimate achievement. It follows as a consequence 
that the Jews send a disproportionately large dele- 
gation as students to the higher technical schools 
and universities,* in spite of the fact that subse- 
quently, in the learned professions, and especially in 
official life, decided, for the most part insurmount- 
able obstacles confront them. The result is that 
those who are rejected crowd in vast numbers the 
few vocations still open to them — the legal, medical 
and university teaching professions, .... 

"That we are here confronted by a real and seri- 
ous problem, one moreover that is extremely difficult 
to solve, he who looks at the matter without anti- 
Semitic prejudice cannot deny, . . . ."f 

This view, quite naturally in accord with the in- 
herent anti-Semitism of the German, fails to notice 

* At Heidelberg, Leipzig, Koenigsberg i. Pr. Jena, Wuerzburg, 
Strassburg, Haile, Breslau, Erlangen, Berlin, Charlottenburg, 
Bonn, Karlsruhe and Muenchen ; not at Rostock, Kiel, Greifswald, 
etc., in very great numbers. 

t Die Ursachen des starken Ueberwiegens der juedischen Bevoel- 
kerung im Universitaetsstudium liegen nahe : sie ist so gut wie 
ausschliesslich staedtische und ueber den Durchschnitt wohlha- 
bende Bevoelkerung. Dazu kommt ein starker Drang, die soziale 
Stellung zu verbessern, und hierzu ist das Universitaetsstudium 
der naechste oder der allein offene Weg, da die Laufbahn durch 
die Armee verschlossen ist. Auch wird man nicht verkennen 
koennen, dass der juedischen Bevoelkerung bei geistiger Regsam- 
keit eine hervorragende Zaehigkeit des Willens, gepaart mit der 
Gabe, Entbehrungen um des Ziels willen zu ertragen, eigen ist. 
So geschieht es, dass sie ein unverhaeltnismaessig starkes Kontin- 
gent auf die hoeheren Schulen und Universitaeten schickt, trotz- 
dem sie nachher in den gelehrten Berufen, vor allern in der Beam- 
tenlaufbahn starken und zum Teil unuebersteiglichen Hinder- 
nissen begegnet. Die Folge ist, dass die sonst Zurueckgewiesenen 
in die wenigen ihnen offen stehenden Berufe mit starker VYucht 
hineindraengen : den des Arztes und des Rechtsanwalts, und auch 
den akademischen Eehrberuf, .... 

" Dass wir hier vor einen wirklichen und schwer aufzuloesenden 
Problem stehen, das wird auch der, der die Dinge nicht mit den 
Empfindungen des Antisemitismus ansieht, nicht in Abrede stellen 
koennen . . . ." 



26 ZIONIST STUDIES 

the Jew's innate love of knowledge for its own sake, 
not for the power it can confer, as old as Talmudic 
times, and that many German Jewish students so- 
called are really natives of Russia, who are excluded 
by ministerial rescript from their own universities- 
Their number is surprisingly large. 

Toward 1877 the " Verein Deutscher Studenten" 
(Union of German Students) which has since become 
notorious as the V. D. St., composed of the repre- 
sentatives of the military, official and agrarian 
classes — the most anti-Semitic in Germany — began to 
take the leadership in university student affairs and 
set out to reduce the " pernicious influence of the 
Jews" to a minimum ! It immediately began to 
" manage things" at the universities — reading-rooms, 
student demonstrations, etc. Under such an hege- 
mony the Jewish students could neither continue nor 
exist. To counteract the efforts of the V. D. St. the 
" Freie Wissenschaftliche Vereinigung" (Liberal Sci- 
entific Union), known as the F. W. V., was formed at 
Berlin, and later also at Heidelberg. At first its 
membership was drawn from all ranks, but subse- 
quently it degenerated (I use the word advisedly) 
into a Jewish society. As such its chief claim to 
notice is its uncompromising and ill-advised opposi- 
tion to Zionism, which the official journal declares to 
be an " exotic plant, raised to premature growth in 
Russian territory." As a purely Jewish society the 
F. W. V. can have no influence with the V. D. St. 
To the last, however, such men as the late Professor 
Th. Mommsen, the historian, have continued to be 
honorary members. Really the F. W. V. has been 
superseded by the " Bund juedischer Corporationen" 
(Union of Jewish Societies) in its contest with the 
V. D. St. 

The two Jewish " Burschenschaften" — Sprevia and 
Suevia— were founded in Berlin and Heidelberg. 



ZIONIST STUDIES 27 

Their members wear the fraternity colors conspicu- 
ously on the vest, coat and hat, and are sworn to 
defend the same at the point of the sword ("Schlae- 
ger"). As a matter of fact these corps were not 
taken seriously by Jews or Gentiles. There was 
nothing Jewish about them save their membership. 

The societies just described point to conditions 
among German Jewish students akin to those ex- 
isting in the United States. These bodies represent 
merely the spirit of imitativeness, often called eu- 
phemistically Jewish adaptability. There is in such 
bodies no Jewish consciousness. In America we have 
similar conditions. I remember at the college where 
I received my academic education a fraternity com- 
posed of Jews who were the worst of the anti-Semites. 
Happily in Germany these facts may be adverted to 
in the past tense, for with the growth of the Zionist 
movement there has been a remarkable rekindling 
of the flame of Jewish consciousness. The Zionist 
movement is not in need of my holding a brief for 
it, but I believe that Zionism contains within itself 
the elements that have made this result possible. It 
is to be hoped that the Jewish students at the 
universities and colleges of this country will come to 
feel this Jewish consciousness within them. It is 
neither my province nor my inclination to point out 
methods here. I hope I may be permitted to say, 
however, that so far as the situation here goes, 
Jewish students, in the greater number of cases, are 
exhibiting a spirit that can neither be admired nor 
held up as an example to be followed. 

Since the inception of the Zionist movement, that 
movement which represents the highest material, 
economic, and spiritual ideals, the German Jewish 
university students have come to know a life of their 
own, thus they have shared and will share, in a 
measure, the life of the German student body as a 



28 ZIONIST STUDIES 

whole, under the most favorable conditions for them- 
selves and the world at large. They have an ideal 
now. In April, 1902 the Jewish students com- 
menced the publication of a monthly journal, de- 
signed to arouse " Jewish fire and enthusiasm for the 
cause of Judaism" among its readers. Der jue- 
dische Student ("The Jewish Student") publishes 
articles of general Jewish interest and chronicles the 
affairs of the Jewish world in general and of the 
Jewish student world, rather a unique microcosm, in 
particular. For example, one issue was devoted to 
the Roumanian question, another to the work of the 
constituent societies of the " Bund juedischer Cor- 
porationen." Again, its readers were warned not to 
become candidates for certain prizes in aid of bap- 
tism. 

Especially at Berlin University, where there are 
many German and Russian Jewish students have 
Jewish societies been active. Lectures on such sub- 
jects as "Judaism and Agriculture," the religious 
aspects of Zionism, Palestinian colonization, etc., 
have been delivered by men like Dr. Heinrich Loewe, 
an indefatigable worker in Zionism, Rabbi Dr. Eschel- 
bacher, Herr Alfred Nossig and others. 

With these evidences of an active Jewish uni- 
versity life in Germany and Austria we may begin to 
summarize the work that has been done and to con- 
sider broadly the attitude of German Jewish uni- 
versity students toward Jewish problems. Let it be 
premised, however, that the matter does not bear 
purely a German imprint. Credit is due, in a large 
measure, to the foreign, the Russian influences at the 
universities, and this too in Gentile circles. Further, 
there are to-day in Germany and Austria some 
thirty student bodies among Jewish students, mostly 
Zionistic so far as their Jewish political faith and 
tendency go. 



ZIONIST STUDIES 29 

The chief concern of the various societies is not 
specifically Jewish, but Jewish only from a particular 
point of view. To combat and annihilate anti- 
Semitism — vain delusion since anti-Semitism to all 
intents and purposes is and always will be existing 
— is the chief aim of these bodies. Of course they 
desire to have the Jewish name, character and all 
that is Jewish respected. Not only is their striv- 
ing noble and purposeful; their method of propa- 
ganda must command the respect of the most preju- 
diced opponent since it is born of self-respect, of love 
of the Jewish name. The German Jewish students 
take an active, well-meaning interest in Jewish life as 
they take this to be.* 

A word on their attitude toward Zionism. In 
such a horror as Kischineff any person who is pos- 
sessed of some humanity must take a live interest; 
a responsive chord of sympathy must vibrate within 
him. The same applies to Roumania. These stu- 
dents are Zionists because they feel Zionism to be the 
only solution of the Jewish problem. 

* As an example rather than a law, I quote the statistics of 
Jewish students at an important American university. At Colum- 
bia University Law School, academic year 1901-1902 : 

Class Total Enrollment No. of Jews Per Cent. 

3d year 126 28 22+ 

2d year 149 37 24+ 

1st year 162 34 21— 

Totals 437 99 22+ 

These figures are typical. See Albert M. Friedenberg, " Colum- 
bia Jewish Students' Association" in Jewish Comment, Aug. 29, 
1902 ; also Idem., Oct. 31, 1903. 



APPENDIX L 

'roportionate Representation of Religions Bodies 
(by per cents.) in Universities, Prussia, 1888- 
1900. {Paulsen, p. 195, in part.) 

Evangelical Catholic , ■ Jewish »» 

1890 1890 1890 1895 1900 

Population 64.24 34.15 1.28 1.20 1.10 

High Schools 72.11 17.50 9.70 

Universities 72.13 18.62 8.94 8.42 7.55 



In Baden, Students at the Universities (Heidelberg, 
Freiburg im/Breisgau, Karlsruhe Technical Insti- 
tute) per Million Inhabitants. {Paulsen, p. 196.) 

For the 4 Years Evangelical Catholic Jewish 

1869—1873 898 510 962 

1874—1878 822 479 1,269 

1879—1883 784 455 2,444 

1884—1888 1,131 779 3,555 

1889—1893 1,334 952 3,953 

University Instructors per Million of the Male Popu- 
lation. {Paulsen, p. 199.) 

Prussian Universities Evangelical Catholic Jewish* 

Privat-Docents 106.50 35 698.90 

Ordinary Professors 33.50 16.90 65.50 

*Are those Jews who became Christians in order to rise in University- 
rank considered hereunder? 



APPENDIX IL 



List of Jewish Student Societies in Detail. 



GERMANY. 



University 


Name 


Founded Remarks 


Berlin 


.. Fr. Wiss. Ver. 


. 1881 At first Liberal, now 
anti-Zionist 




Sprevia 


. 1894 Corps Menswr Cott- 
leur tragend 




Hasmonasa 


. 1895 Zionist, Ver.jued, St., 
also Charlotten- 
burg. 



Bonn , Sprevia. 

Breslau Sprevia. 

Makkabaea 1902 

Freiburg i/B Sprevia 

Freiburg i/Sa Unitas 

Heidelberg Suevia 

Koenigsbergi/P.... Herzl 

Leipzig 

Muenchen Sprevia 

Stuttgart 1903 

w k /Ak. Ver. f. j. 

Wuerzbur S I Gesch. u. Litt 

Veda. 



1895 



Zionist, V.j.St. 



See Sprevia 
Zionist 
Zionist, V.j.St. 

Zionist, V.j.St. 



AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EMPIRE. 



Cracow 

Czernowitz . 



Bruenn Veritas 1896 Zionist 

Zephirah 1896 " 

JPrzedswit- " 

•••* \Haschachat " 

.... Hasmonaea 

Zephirah " 

Graz 

Lemberg Emunah " 

Olmuetz Geullah " 

Prague Bar Kochba 

Stanislau Bar Kochba 

Suczawa Tikwah 

Tarnopol Bar Kochba " 

Vienna Kadimah 1883 " 

Makkabaea 1887 

Juria 1893 

Unitas 1894 



3 2 ZIONIST STUDIES 

Vienna Libanonia 1897 Zionist 

fArbeitsausschus 

^ der akademischen " 

[Korporation ... 

Bar Giora 

Bar Kochba 

Leo Pinsker 

SWITZERLAND. 
Bern Kadimah " 



Whole number of societies 38 

Societies having Zionist aims and tendencies 28 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



029 813 185 7 



